LVM

Very interesting and worthwhile

Revisado: 02-05-24

Excellent reader and a very good book on what became imperial Rome. It was incredibly tedious to me however to have to listen to bce and ce used over and over again. This change was an amazingly petty hill for the new historians to die on.

Otherwise, excellent book and I recommend it.

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What a pleasure to be transported

Revisado: 10-27-23

Thank you, Chris-san, for putting your story together like this and sharing it, and Japan, with us.

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What a story

Revisado: 09-27-23

Well paced, well balanced, with only a slight tinge of bias leaking out from the author. No one escapes that anyway, but it did take a bit of the polish off. I’m sure those from the opposite political perspective see it that way also, so I’m not sure anyone could have done better for a broadly marketed biography such as this. Great reader, and well worth the listen.

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Great Stuff!

Revisado: 01-30-23

An absolute delight. Fantastic reader, hilarious, convoluted story. P.G. Wodehouse at his best. I recommend it highly.

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Timeless Stories poorly done-don't waste a credit.

Revisado: 12-27-22

If the rest of the stories are as badly acted as Sense and Sensibility, all I can say is that the price was right as this series was free (except for the time I spent listening). If I'd paid a credit for this, in spite of it being 45 hours, I'd be chapped.
{I'm giving the story 5 stars because I am giving the unabridged Jane Austen five stars, not because i am giving the adaptation that score.} I changed my mind on the previous statement in brackets and gave the story one star, because the longer I listened to this, the more disgusted I was. The professional butchering of these classics is absolutely unacceptable.
I understand the reasons why an editor might make some of the choices that were made in abridging these works. Not all of them were terrible choices, but many were bad, and many others ought not to have been made at all. It takes a truly great editor to edit great works, otherwise you edit at your peril. And whoever edited these made a total hash out of them.
The editors completely misunderstood most of the characters in this book (S&S) and either miscast them or misdirected them. The actors obviously didn't understand their own characters either or the story itself, except for whoever played Mr. John Dashwood. He hit just the right note. He's obviously either read the book or seen or heard a better adaptation than this is and had the sense to imitate it. Willowby, in the latter half of the book only, does a slightly better job than in the first half. But he wasn't good.
I can sincerely say that I have listened to several amateur readers do a much, much better job with their lone reading of unabridged versions, and with no posh technology and direction. The "professional" people who arranged and acted this should be embarrassed. Seriously embarrassed. Sound effects and music can't cover for a lack of understanding of the nuance of Jane Austen's works and a lack of understanding of who the characters are.
I'm chalking up the listening time to an education in what can and cannot be done, what should and should not be done in a drama adaptation, or any other rendition that is not 100% faithful to the text.
One last thing.....if you notice that there are birds chirping in the background of scenes that don't happen either a) outside, or b) in the daytime, or c) in the spring or summer, then you will likely notice other ridiculous inconsistencies that will annoy the h*ll out of you, like they did me; and then there are the little sounds, uhs, hmmms, ums, and other inarticulate sounds the actors make to try to add to their characters.
Words fail me, as they did them.
Claire Bloom's version of all six of the books IS worth a credit. But you can also go to Librevox and find very good versions for free.
I'm still shocked at how badly done this 'professional' version is. I guess certain modern sensibilities cannot understand what is going on in Jane Austen.
addendum - I'm now halfway through Pride and Prejudice. My opinion has calcified. The actors for this one are almost all too old for the parts. The interpretation is very faulty. The additions in dialogue and narration absolutely unjustified. The background noise/sound effects bordering on the ridiculous at this point.
Mansfield Park - not good. Pick the free Librevox version with Elizabeth Klett instead if you want to enjoy this story. Let me say it again, what they have done with this book is stripped all the nuance and humor out of it. Just avoid. I'm continuing to update as I listen.
Emma is much better than the others. Fewer intrusive or weirdly incongruent sound effects, better voice actors, good narration (most of the narrators, to be fair, have been decent though not as good as Karen Savage or Elizabeth Klett over at Librevox), and yet there are still edits and changes in dialogue that I consider unjustified or discordant with the true nature of the characters in the *real* books. But it hasn't been as painful to listen to. I'm assuming Emma Thompson had something to do with not making it as ghastly as the others.
Northanger Abbey - not great. Actors did not give a good characterization of the characters. I just do not understand why they undertook this project to do it so badly.
Persuasion - I was hopeful but again.....no, no, no. See above re characterization. As this is my favorite Austen, it was particularly painful to listen to it and to how badly it was done. I have listened to Claire Bloom's versions of these books many times through and will probably do it again as a palate cleanser after this tragic debacle.

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I love this author

Revisado: 10-04-22

But the female narrator.....something about her intonation that bothered me. I've read this book, but the stories were not enhanced by her voice, I'm sorry to say.

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A very sweet old fashioned story

Revisado: 08-18-22

A very nice story for Christmastide although I enjoyed it greatly in the dead heat of summer.
I happily recommend it.

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The majority of the changes are completely unjustified

Revisado: 08-04-22

Wow....one of the great stories of the English language but they felt like they could improve on it? The awkward filler "uhms", "um hmms" and other background responses, (added to create some kind of artificial conversational versimilitude) were just awful. I don't mind cutting some elements to shorten the story for this adaptation, but I was shocked that they didn't have better editing of the script and better advice about what would sound authentic, and what would not.
On the whole, worth listening to, but I'm very glad I didn't have to pay for it. There are superior readings of the complete novel on Librevox: Elizabeth Klett, Karen Savage.

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Excellent reading

Revisado: 07-21-22

Another great reading of a timeless classic by Jane Austen. Very glad to have found this.

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Very well made

Revisado: 06-28-22

I enjoyed the story and the performances are very well done.
Interesting concept and I never really knew what was going to happen next.

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